My high school career is what made me into the strong person that I am today. I was told by a teacher in my sophomore year that I would be lucky to attend a community college. I had worked so hard in school for all my life and I knew I was more than that. I knew when I was told that I was recommended for the English course with the description as being “for students who plan to attend a community college or a two year college” that it wasn't for me. I told my mom and she was also appalled.
First of all, she was shocked that they would put such a description in our course catalog because of the generalizations that the school was making. My writing may not flow, or always be as well organized as the others, but I still may have strong points and thoughts through out my essays. As I mentioned previously, in my description on my elementary education, I described my town as being known for having a “great” educational system.
Sophomore year was the first time that I began to realize what the state, or even the nationally was assessed as being “great”. This is the high test scores.
Everything done in my public school was formulaic including writing therefore translating to our high test scores. Perhaps this was good for me seeing that I have a scattered brain, but our essays were often graded solely upon this. I did not do as well as I should have in my sophomore english class simply because all my teacher checked for was the structure of our writing, not what we were trying to communicate with our writing. This frustrated me beyond no extent! Our point of view on any issue did not matter, and the deepness of our evidence did not matter either as long as it was there. Feeling like my writing was never heard out by my teacher would leave me feeling angry, discouraged, and caring less about my essays.
A lot of my issues with writing came from my Dyslexia, my issue with reading; seeing that I miss minor details while reading or get things confused more so than my classmates. I would try so hard to confirm my evidence to be true and spend more time focusing on that than on the organization of my writing.
Essay after essay, bad grade after bad grade, my mom was DONE and more importantly so was I. She took me one day from my public school and told me it was the day to tour St. Andrew’s, a small private school in my hometown. I wasn't sure how I felt about it when I first got there because it is known for being such a small school with 50 students in a senior class. Once I learned that there is a maximum of 12 pupils in a class at a time brought great relief to me to get the help I needed with my writing and my reading. I began attending St. Andrew’s in my junior year. This school allowed me to grow into myself, both academically and socially. My confidence level improved greatly in both areas. I ended up by the time I graduated with two great awards from St. Andrew’s, “Zest for Life” which was presented to the student who boosted the overall enthusiasm of the community, and an additional scholarship that was presented a senior. I found peace with the public school system when I applied for the Barrington Community Scholarship, a scholarship offered to both private and public residents of Barrington, RI. I was awarded 3 scholarships on their behalf and I finally felt as great as the other students of Barrington Public Schools.
My high school career is what made me into the strong person that I am today. I was told by a teacher in my sophomore year that I would be lucky to attend a community college. I had worked so hard in school for all my life and I knew I was more than that. I knew when I was told that I was recommended for the English course with the description as being “for students who plan to attend a community college or a two year college” that it wasn't for me. I told my mom and she was also appalled.
First of all, she was shocked that they would put such a description in our course catalog because of the generalizations that the school was making. My writing may not flow, or always be as well organized as the others, but I still may have strong points and thoughts through out my essays. As I mentioned previously, in my description on my elementary education, I described my town as being known for having a “great” educational system.
Sophomore year was the first time that I began to realize what the state, or even the nationally was assessed as being “great”. This is the high test scores.
Everything done in my public school was formulaic including writing therefore translating to our high test scores. Perhaps this was good for me seeing that I have a scattered brain, but our essays were often graded solely upon this. I did not do as well as I should have in my sophomore english class simply because all my teacher checked for was the structure of our writing, not what we were trying to communicate with our writing. This frustrated me beyond no extent! Our point of view on any issue did not matter, and the deepness of our evidence did not matter either as long as it was there. Feeling like my writing was never heard out by my teacher would leave me feeling angry, discouraged, and caring less about my essays.
A lot of my issues with writing came from my Dyslexia, my issue with reading; seeing that I miss minor details while reading or get things confused more so than my classmates. I would try so hard to confirm my evidence to be true and spend more time focusing on that than on the organization of my writing.
Essay after essay, bad grade after bad grade, my mom was DONE and more importantly so was I. She took me one day from my public school and told me it was the day to tour St. Andrew’s, a small private school in my hometown. I wasn't sure how I felt about it when I first got there because it is known for being such a small school with 50 students in a senior class. Once I learned that there is a maximum of 12 pupils in a class at a time brought great relief to me to get the help I needed with my writing and my reading. I began attending St. Andrew’s in my junior year. This school allowed me to grow into myself, both academically and socially. My confidence level improved greatly in both areas. I ended up by the time I graduated with two great awards from St. Andrew’s, “Zest for Life” which was presented to the student who boosted the overall enthusiasm of the community, and an additional scholarship that was presented a senior. I found peace with the public school system when I applied for the Barrington Community Scholarship, a scholarship offered to both private and public residents of Barrington, RI. I was awarded 3 scholarships on their behalf and I finally felt as great as the other students of Barrington Public Schools.